The failed attempt to rewrite the Chinese language in 1977
In short: In 1977, China attempted a radical second wave of character simplification. The goal was to make writing even easier, but the plan backfired spectacularly. Instead of streamlining communication, the reform triggered widespread confusion, split common surnames, and remains a cautionary tale of attempting to artificially control linguistic evolution.
The first wave of simplification, established in 1964, successfully stabilized the script used in mainland China and Singapore today. However, by 1975, the Script Reform Committee submitted a much more ambitious 'Second Scheme.' This proposal aimed to simplify 248 characters for immediate use and evaluate another 605. The scale was massive: the proposed changes would have modified approximately 4,500 characters by altering their components.
The timing of the rollout was disastrous. Released during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1978), the scheme was compiled by non-experts under the '748 Project' without outside consultation, as many trained experts had been expelled. While major newspapers like People's Daily began using the new forms immediately, the public found many of the proposed characters 'laughable.' The distinction between characters intended for immediate use and those for review collapsed, leading to massive inconsistency in schools and media.
The reform was officially rescinded by the State Council on 24 June 1986. Critics argued that the movement was a zero-sum game: reducing stroke counts in some characters made others harder to distinguish, creating an unnecessary burden on readers. The failure was so significant that the PRC shifted its focus from reform to the standardization of existing characters, declaring further simplification a sensitive and 'untouchable' topic. Today, while these characters are officially considered incorrect, some survive in informal use because they were part of the education of those schooled between 1977 and 1986.
The social impact was particularly disruptive to identity. The second round of simplification caused some family names to split into two distinct characters. For instance, the surname 傅 (Fù) was targeted for simplification into 付, and several other common surnames were merged with much less frequent ones, complicating the written identity of many families.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Second round of simplified Chinese characters
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